Cherokee

Formed December 26, 1831 (78^th county)

Cherokee County (266,625), Canton (32,972), Woodstock (35,099)

The 1994 masonry courthouse is located on North Street, north of Main Street.  Georgia State Highway 205 is North Street.  Mayes, Sudderth, and Etheridge are the architects.  There have been 1874 and 1929 versions of the courthouse since formation of Cherokee County on December 26, 1831 as the 78^th county.  The 1929 courthouse is still used for county administration.  The old courthouse features columns and veteran memorials.  Canton has always been the county seat.  The county was taken from the Cherokee Lands and originally included all land north and west of the Chattahoochee River.  The county’s name comes from the Native American tribe.  The county seat is named for Canton, China.  Cherokee County was the birthplace of 1 Georgia Governor, Joseph M. Brown.  The county center is in Canton 1.9 miles East of the city center. 

Cherokee County government consists of a manager, a sheriff, an administrator, a coroner, a clerk, and a tax commissioner (executive).  It has 5 Commissioners (legislative.)  Twenty-eight Superior Court Judges serve Cherokee, Dawson, Fannin, Forsyth, Gilmer, Gwinnett, Habersham, Hall, Lumpkin, Pickens, Rabun, Stephens, Towns, Union, and White counties and Three State Judges and Eleven County Judges, court clerk, and county attorney serve Cherokee County (judicial.) The county is in northwest Georgia north of Atlanta, Georgia and southeast of Chattanooga, Tennessee.   The county is surrounded clockwise by Pickens, Dawson, Forsyth, Fulton, Cobb, Bartow, and Gordon counties. 

The area of the county is 424 square miles.  It is 51 of 159 in size in the state.  It ranks 7 out of 159 in population in the state.  It has a density of 628.8 persons per square mile making it 15 out of 159 in the state.  Cherokee County has 33.1% of its population in its incorporated areas.  Interstate Highway 575 originates in the county and heads south into Cobb County and the Atlanta metropolitan area.  The county is overall rectangular with the southeast corner cut out.  Canton is in the western third of the county.  Woodstock is located on the southern border.  Canton is the county seat and Woodstock is the largest city.  Canton is 12.4% of the county population while Woodstock is 13.2% of the county population.  This county is in the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Nelson